Chinese tech shares are under pressure as Beijing turns up the regulatory heat on the sector, while American drivers are facing the prospect of higher gasoline prices as crude markets rally. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Tuesday’s bell.
- Stock futures wobbled, suggesting that the S&P 500 will hover near its seventh consecutive record closing high when markets open after the long holiday weekend.
- U.S. oil prices hit six-year highs after OPEC and its allies failed in a third attempt to break a deadlock over crude production levels.
- Read our full market wrap here.
What’s Coming Up
- Two surveys of the U.S. services sector are due at 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. Economists expect the data to show activity continued to grow at a healthy clip in June, albeit at a slower pace than in May.
- Earnings are due from Smart Global after the close.
Market Movers to Watch
- Didi Global slid almost 20% ahead of the bell, taking its stock price to $12.4, below the $14 at which the ride-hailing giant priced its IPO last week. The Wall Street Journal reported that the China’s cybersecurity watchdog suggested Didi delay its initial public offering and urged the company to conduct a thorough self-examination of its network security weeks before it went public in the U.S.
- Uber Technologies lost 1.6%. The U.S. ride-hailing firm owns a stake in Didi, according to a May regulatory filing.
- Two other companies whose mobile apps are the subject of data-security reviews by Chinese regulators also dropped. American depository receipts of Full Truck Alliance slumped 19% in New York while Kanzhun, an online recruitment platform, fell 10%.
- The pressure spread to other Chinese firms with U.S. listings. American depository receipts of e-commerce firm Pinduoduo lost 2.9%, JD.com fell 2.2% and Baidu fell 2.8%.
- American Express rose 2.5% after analysts at Goldman Sachs bumped up their target price for the stock.
- Krispy Kreme slipped 4% in premarket trading. At $18.36, the stock is still above its IPO price from last week.
- Energy stocks got a bump up in premarket trading after U.S. crude prices shot to six-year highs. Baker Hughes, Occidental Petroleum and Schlumberger gained more than 1% apiece.
- Mining company Freeport-McMoRan rose 1.9% as copper prices also advanced.
Market Facts
- MSCI’s China index was up just 1.1% for the year through June 30, trailing the equivalent global benchmark by 11 percentage points. In relative terms, that was the worst first-half performance in eight years for the MSCI China, which includes both onshore and offshore stocks.
- Individual investors have grown in number: More than 10 million new brokerage accounts are estimated to have been opened in the first half of this year, according to JMP Securities. That is around the total for all of 2020.
- On this day in 1785, Congress declared “the money unit of the United States of America be one dollar.”
Chart of the Day
Power grids seem an obvious way to ride the renewable energy wave. Cash incentives announced on both sides of the Atlantic will help the companies involved, but the real breakthrough could be the Biden administration’s plan for a new grid authority, writes Heard on the Street columnist Rochelle Toplensky.
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